Cycle of Fire
by Count Lazuli
Summary: Samus attempts to compensate for the past by defending a Human mining colony from a band of Space Pirate scavengers, meanwhile longing to end a seemingly eternal rivalry with their Military Commander. A Metroid Short Story about hopeless destiny.
1. The Spark

The bounty hunter sat in the seat of her cockpit. The only sound was the white noise of the engine pipes

within the ship. She simply looked out beyond the window of her gunship into deep space. Infinite

space.

Inside her protective helmet, Samus closed her eyes to drink in the depressingly small pockets of peace

she could obtain within the galaxy. It has been decades she has been bounty hunting across the

galaxy. She has toppled empires and butchered gods. She has been everywhere and lived a life far

beyond that of a normal human being by a long shot.

Yet the pain never seemed to end. Ever since she had lost her parents in that tragic colony assault, a

Spark of rivalry had been born. One that had ended, then returned, and then once again ended just to

return again.

Tears would have run down Samus's eyes at the endless vendetta that she vows to see through. But no

Tears came, not inside the suit. The mere feeling of encasement reminded her of the powerful warrior

that She was. It was only without that shield to her life, did she feel so naked and helpless.

Samus always wondered if the Space Pirate military commander would have won the cruel game had it

not been for her suit. She had lost count as to how many times she had faced her nemesis.

She sat up in her seat and began going through her message files on a terminal in the cockpit. Most of

the messages she had sent were replies to contracts and rewards. But she still had that one that she

never mustered the courage to send.

She found it rather futile really. A stupid idea after everything she and the one called Ridley had been

through. What they had done to each other. This offer of hers was not typed by the powerful bounty

hunter known as Samus Aran. Instead, it was written by Samus Aran the little girl. That small twinge of a

naive little girl buried somewhere deep in the abyss of that chozo armour.

While small and naive, that little girl was also hope. Hope that an endless hellfire amongst two bloody

foes could end.

Samus remembered when she had first met Ridley on the colony. The beast had butchered countless

innocent lives. But that hopeful little girl and her mammalian pet bravely went up to Lord Ridley, making

the most innocent of offers possible. An offer right before the spark of a warrior.

Countless years later, the experienced bounty hunter sat in her ship, staring at that unsent message,

pondering with a wrestle between hope and doubt. Then a red flash reeled in her attention.

One of the many consoles was glowing with a distress signal:

"COLONY 8-W2: SPACE PIRATE ASSAULT"

In moments, the orange Gunship of the Galactic warrior chased through the stars like a thousand times

before.


	2. The Kindle

The beast awoke in a web of wires and automatons. The gritty and almost derelict state of his current

whereabouts was home to him. The crude birth into the world did not feel new to Lord Ridley, the last

of the Space Pirate high command.

The reptilian nightmare peered about his roughly augmented frame, half his flesh now alloy plating and

calcified ore of a powerful sort. With a snarl of exhaustion, Ridley cut down the cables around his body

with one swoop of his talons.

Despite the chance at life once again, there was no pride to be found in the ways he was reborn. It

seemed that even with all of his power, that wretched hunter remained as his personal plague in the

galaxy, as a reminder of how much he relied on his petty underlings just to survive her attacks.

The last and most recent memory in his mind before current time, was being burned alive in the depths

of Norfair on planet Zebes. But like time and time again, here he was in a new shell.

The beast crawled from his massive medical table to see his surviving troops greet him outside the labs.

Head of the space pirate science team informed Ridley that the great Mother Brain was beyond repair

with the destruction of Zebes and only a few fragments of his DNA were able to be retrieved to revive

him. Ridley was in command now.

The dragon questioned in regard to the refined ore that made up part of his body. The answer he got

was a powerful mineral obtained by a few mining carts stolen from a colony of human miners.

Seeing an opportunity to heal some military wounds, Ridley commanded his minions to prepare ships

for an assault on this small colony and take the powerful minerals for themselves.


	3. The Combustion

Fire crackled and smoke hazed from the many colony buildings of 8W-2. Men, women, and children

screamed in terror as Space Pirates raided their once peaceful homes. Those who attempted to

save what they have built were ended swiftly without a tickle of mercy. While crab-like monstrosities

pillaged the homes and streets like a banquet of rubble and gore, the winged Lord crawled on all fours,

hissing out a steam of white hot fire upon the waste of human life around them.

Thanks to the smoke-blotted air above the meek mining colony, none of the heartless raiders could see

the orange ship soar down from the infinite space and into a place to deploy the pilot.

Samus left her ship to witness another catastrophe done to a bundle of innocent colony people. With

her arm cannon ready, Samus used her suit to sprint abnormally fast for any human being, all the way

into the heat of battle.

What was at first a grim celebration amongst the space pirates quickly became a run for their rations as

the destroyer of Zebes lunged in to crash the party. As a side effect of Samus's efforts, green blood

matted over the stains of red human blood that had been splattered there previously.

These space pirates may have been the same from Zebes, but Samus noticed that these ones behaved

far more different than last she had encountered them. Without their fortresses and prime access to

advanced arsenals, they were but scavengers driven by desperation. Pride cometh, after all, before the

fall.

When the screams of dying Pirates faded from the ears of Samus Aran, a higher pitched, human scream

cut into her eardrum. With absurd speed, the orange warrior jolted towards the sound of the scream to

witness a mirror to the past.

A ferocious dragon zeroed in on what it may have considered a humorous gesture. A mother stood

between the Space Pirate lord and her own little son. A mother willing to sacrifice herself so her child

may live another day. The narrow snouted monster chuckled before rising up on its forelegs, ready to

let out a gust of hellfire onto damned souls.

The warrior raised in the chozo arts intervened, commencing another clash between the unbeaten

knight and the heartless phoenix.


	4. The Inferno

The outcome of a charge beam singed against the new and improved Ridley as his body went crashing

into an old house, a bit of debris snowing over him. The animal's eyes saw mother and child escape into

an alley, while his metal nemesis walked towards him, gun at the ready.

The two foes stared into the soul of one another. Each drank from the bloody rage of history, of years

trying to end one another once and for all. While one could not be bested as she cowered behind

armour, the other could not stay dead as he relied on petty thugs to stitch his wounds.

Neither said anything to each other. This battle has been going on for decades and while the

circumstances and locations may change, the heart of the situation never does.

Ridley fired himself into the air, his wings blotting out even more light along with the smoke. A red glow

rose up his throat, and white flame screeched from his jaws and towards the target. Samus leaped

backwards to avoid extra heating to her already active suit and fired a barrage of missiles.

Ridley deflected a few with his tail but decent dents in his plating had been made from those he could

not prevent from reaching him. He spun around, his tail slamming into Samus's torso and pinning her

against another building.

With a clawed hand, Ridley grabbed his enemy's head and slammed her into the ground. But just as he

was relishing in his own attacks, he felt the pathetic shots of a tazer pistol tickling his snout. Ridley

looked up to find the same little boy whose mother was protecting him, now running towards him with

the idea he could actually make a difference in the fight.

Samus saw the boy coming to try and save her and realized the danger in the situation. She performed

her screw attack to knock Ridley off balance then ran to the boy, plucked him from the ground and slide

him into the arms of his mother who had come to reclaim both her son and her pistol.

The mother ran back to the alley with her son as a sharp tail end skewered Samus's large shoulder plate,

ripping her from the civilians and back into the heat of rivalry.

Samus was trying to free herself of the tail as it tossed her about the area like a ragdoll until her visor

became partly smashed from hitting a building corner. She was finally thrown off Ridley's sharp tail,

giving her enough time to change her weapon settings.

Ridley who was now in a demented hunger for mayhem, rose to the air with his wings mid lunge

towards his foe. Samus quickly turned around and jumped to Ridley, tossing her arm around his snout

and penetrating her arm cannon into his avian jaws.

Mother and Son watched from the alley as the metal warrior threw its own fiery fury into the belly of

the beast.


	5. The Burn

After an echoing roar of agony cut through the smoke poisoned skies of the mining colony, Ridley

collapsed to the ground. His innards were a boiling torture from the blow. He gasped in a desperate

attempt to pull in even the smallest breeze into his aching gut.

The orange warrior stood there, watching the suffering creature. After all these years of trying to

permanently end each other, the killing machine was exhausted from years of conflict. And while the

warrior was exhausted at the moment, the girl took control of the woman's heart. This may be the only

chance to break the cycle of fire that burns between the two foes, or forever be locked in an eternal

conflict.

Samus Aran, like all those years ago, stepped forward towards the creature before her on this human

colony.

 _"_ _I'm Samus. Three Years old. Are you Mr. Ridley? You're not scary. I'm perfectly fine. Even if you look_

 _different, we can still be friends."_

The words came back from years ago, refreshed by the voice of a grown woman.

 _"_ _I remember those words exactly when I first met you, Ridley. I didn't want rivalry. I have killed you_

 _again and again now. I can't be the only one here who is tired of this endless hellhole that we endure._

 _We can make a truce. Let me show you peace, and you show peace to the galaxy. I am willing to let go of_

 _what you did to my life if it means ending this all. All you need to do is say yes. And the cycle is broken._

 _Please..."_

Silence haunted the ruins of the colony. That is until the long jaws of the monster wheezed out a laugh.

Humor was what it was to him. Nothing more than a sign of how weak his eternal foe truly was. He'd

rather die a million times more than succumb to the request of such a pathetic mindset.

And Samus knew the answer now.

An orange fist curled, and finally a tear of despair ran down the cheek of the bounty hunter behind the

helmet. This was not chance. This was fate. Her destiny to fight this monster was decided for her.

She raised her arm cannon at the laughing beast as the crying child faded away from the presence of

Ridley forever and the cold warrior took center stage again.

Laughter turned to screams as flesh, alloy, and ore disintegrated from the wrath of the plasma beam.

The warrior walked away, leaving the screaming dragon in flames. Whether Ridley lived or died from this

didn't matter. The civilians would do away with the beast for now. But even as she heard the body

behind her burn to a crisp, she knew it wasn't over. It would never be over.

Samus saw as the woman and her son had crept out from the alley, seeing that all was safe now from

the Space Pirates. The mother tried to keep her son close, but the boy ran right up to Samus. While

Samus saw a mirror; the boy saw something like nothing he had ever seen before. The boy saw a

mysterious and powerful saint who had sent the demon back to hell. If the boy stepped out into the

galaxy, he may find this yin and yang many more times than just today.

Samus Aran walked past the mother and boy, and vanished into the smoke. Having prevented the birth

of another Galactic Warrior, trapped in the flaming purgatory of grudges, an orange ship rose into the

sky.

The angel went back to the heavens until she shall one day again hear the beat of dark wings and feel

the heat of the flame. She will again. Undoubtedly.

The End


End file.
